After the disaster, the Central Bureau of Investigation of India filed charges against 12 related personnel, including Warren, then the chairman of Union Carbide (India) Co., Ltd.? Anderson and eight Indian executives of the company, as well as the company itself and its two small companies. Due to the death of 1 indicted Indian executives, the court convicted the remaining seven Indian executives, including the then Indian chairman Keshubu, on the 7th for the crime of negligent death. Ma Hengda, many people are over 70 years old. According to this charge, they will be sentenced to two years in prison at most.
Survivors of the gas leak, their families and local activists gathered around the court on the morning of the 7 th, holding banners to protest that the punishment for the perpetrators was too light and too late.
Since the guilty verdict is made by the Indian District Court, the defendant also has the right to appeal to a higher court, which is estimated to last for several years.
Anderson, the American boss of the company, returned to China shortly after the disaster, and now he lives in new york. In July last year, the court issued an arrest warrant against Anderson, but there has been no following. United Carbide Company paid US$ 470 million in compensation to the Indian government on 1989, and was acquired by Dow Chemical on 1999. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal oil spill in 2009, Dow Chemical said that Union Carbide Company had done its best to help the victims and their families, saying that the Indian government had the responsibility to provide clean drinking water and medical services to local residents.
1984,1On the night of February 2, 984, the pressure of an air storage tank suddenly rose sharply in pesticide plant, a union carbide company in the suburb of Bhopal. The gas storage tank contains 45 tons of liquid toxic methyl isocyanate, which is the raw material for manufacturing pesticides carbaryl and dimehypo. At 0: 56 on the 3rd, the valve of the gas storage tank failed, and the highly toxic chemicals in the tank quickly leaked and spread in the form of gas.
The toxic gas leaked from pesticide plant crossed the factory wall and first entered the neighboring slums. Hundreds of slum dwellers immediately died in their sleep. The poison gas then drifted within 25 square miles of the city.
At that time, many citizens in Bhopal thought that the city had been attacked by an atomic bomb or had a major earthquake. After learning that it was a factory gas leak, the whole city residents fled in a hurry. However, many people lost their sight on the way to escape, and even fell headlong on the side of the road, never getting up again.
That night, 3,000 people died, followed by 1.2 million people, and another 550,000 people died of poison gas. Up to now, there is still no cleaning or protective measures at the scene of the leakage accident.
Claim $654.38+0.5 billion from American companies.
After the disaster, Melvin? Bailey Law Firm and two other law firms claimed $654.38+05 billion from Union Carbide Company on behalf of Indian victims. However, after years of litigation, the Supreme Court of India made a final ruling on February 1989, demanding that the United Carbide Company of the United States compensate the loss of 470 million US dollars in one lump sum, and ordered it to pay it in one lump sum on March 3 1 day. The company announced its acceptance of the ruling.
"Murder" was changed to "negligent injury"
199 1, the Indian procuratorate prosecuted Anderson for "punishable murder", and if convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. But in fact, Anderson has been living a leisurely life in America. 1984 65438+On February 6, 2008, the third day after the gas leakage accident, Anderson led an investigation team to Bhopal to conduct a comprehensive investigation. During this period, Anderson was arrested by the Indian authorities, but was later released on bail. After returning to the United States, Anderson stayed in the position of president of Union Carbide Company for another two years, until/kloc-0 retired in 1986.
Although the Indian police have issued an international wanted order against Anderson to Interpol, they have never seriously asked the US judicial authorities for help in search and extradition. Some analysts also pointed out that New Delhi obviously did not want the tension between India and the United States to continue because of the Bhopal gas case, so it hesitated to sue Anderson.
In 1996, the Indian procuratorate also proposed to the court to reduce the charges against Anderson and others, reducing the original "punishable murder" to "negligent injury", and the latter only needs to be sentenced to imprisonment for less than two years.
People in India are still suffering from the remaining poison-an environmental test conducted in 2009 showed that there were still obvious chemical residues around the explosion factory that year, and the consequences of toxic gas leakage would harm generations.